Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 35.djvu/230

216 the mortal peril of his people, had gathered upon that ridge all the guns available, including some 32-pounders and a battery of 20-pounder Parrotts, or in all twenty-two pieces, which he manned with gunners from the least demoralized of the runaways. Soon, too, the remains of the field batteries were added, and some fifty guns were massed upon this eminence about 5 P. M., with a field of fire sweeping all the approaches to the river. The position was strong; timber and undergrowth gave shelter for the artillery and their support, while a deep ravine separated it from the table land over which it dominated; tangled brushwood obstructed its steep slopes, and on or behind this position, as we have said, took final refuge the entire Federal force except the remains of one of Sherman's Brigades, which appear to have drifted off with their general to the vicinity of the bridge across the Snake Creek, on the road to Crump's Landing, and, not being followed, he established them there undisturbed, with rear open for retreat, in an emergency, northward.

The air now resounded with hearty shouts of natural exultation on the part of the victorious Confederates, and, having established his headquarters in advance of Shiloh, General Beauregard, through his staff, urged the forward propulsion of the whole force upon the shattered fragments of the enemy.

Unfortunately, however, the Federal encampments were plethoric with food most tempting to hungry men, as well as with clothing and other alluring spoil; the thick woods, too, had greatly disintegrated almost every regiment, so that none of the divisions confronted in an embodied form the last position that remained between them and the deep, broad waters of the Tennessee.

The superior officers present, howbeit, collected the men immediately around them, of whatsoever corps.

Tired, hungry and exhausted as were the Confederates, nevertheless a number of determined separate efforts were made by them during the remaining hour of daylight to wrench their last foothold from their elsewhere beaten adversary. But meanwhile, at 5 P. M., Ammen's Brigade of Nelson's Division had been thrown across the river and established by Buell as a support of Webster's powerful battery; and the Federals, like a rat brought to bay in a corner from which there is no escape,